Component / setup advice

[Pat butcher]

Hi all. Need a little advice been running main pc into my Jolida Dac to MF amp.  I have now moved my system into my main lounge and don’t really want to bring my pc in.  I have an old laptop but poor storage space and slow bootup times so it a bit annoying to use. I also have a nvidia shield tv so I was thinking that I might be able to use this into my dac but not sure about getting all my music into the shield.

So what is the cheapest and most user friendly way of achieving a good set up.

Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers,

Pat

 

[Pat butcher]

Anyone?

 

[pugster]

the cheapest way would probably be to change the HD drive for a larger capacity one on the laptop reinstall windows ,turn every service off you dont need and use it specifically for audio only (i use a netbook to which i added some RAM and a bigger HD )

 

[Man in a van]

A bit more info might help.

What software are you using on the computer?

Are you streaming or just playing ripped files?

Can you connect  a fanless computer to your TV or do you want headless with control apps?

How much do you want to spend (please don't say as little as possible) as little as possible?

Ronnie

 

[Cable Monkey]

Hi Pat,

I have not yet received or assessed the device I want to try to achieve what you are after but keep an eye on my PiPO X9S thread. A fully functional Windows 10 device plus some storage should offer you very similar options to what you have in a user friendly package. If your DAC is USB capable you are set to go. If not further spend would be required on a USB to SPDIF converter.

 

[radamel]

For much better boot times and noiseless operation replace the HDD with an SSD. 

 

[Pat butcher]

Thanks all.

Dont really want to use the laptop. It’s an old one can’t really see booting up every time I want to listen to music.

Cable Monkey read the thread looks interesting. How is the sq on that device. I have a Nvidia shield which in theory should do the job I think. Has anyone used a shield as part of a hifi setup?

My idea is to use my main pc to stream music through Wifi to the shield. So a good android music player is also needed.  

 

[twinpot]

A better, even less obtrusive way of getting he music to your DAC/Amp would be to look at the Chromecast Audio, Gramofon, or similar. The CC will output analog into your amp or digital into the DAC. Another option could be a Raspberry Pi based unit, which you can then stream to from any other source.

 

[radamel]

I think the Chromecast is an interesting device but in terms of sound quality via optical it's clearly below what I get using a fanless SSD Netbook via USB asynchronous.

 

[Pat butcher]

what about the shield? I am going to see how this works when i get a chance.

I will let you know.

?

 

[twinpot]

Does the Shield support USB OTG? If so, you could connect it to a USB DAC, then into the amp. You can use it as a Spotify connect output, and with other Android apps, have it act as an AirPlay speaker, etc for streaming, or use any number of streaming services directly, or access files on the PC via CiFS, uPNP, etc.

Look at apps like AllConnect that will allow you to play files pretty much from anywhere to anywhere. You can still use a CC, Gramfon, AirPlay device connected to your stereo, and use the Shield as your remote/controller. Given the price of the devices mentioned, you're not wasting much money by experimenting.

 

[Pat butcher]

Yes the shield works, its not easy to get it onto a windows server thou. Also I am not sure about the sq but its has so many settings. I used it within kodi. Might need to experiment more. What is USB OTG?

cheers